Astrid is genuinely surprised to see the lizardfolk waving her now limp arm around apologetically while the green one berates him. Eventually, the one-eyed one offers her the arm back, which Astrid snatches with an annoyed expression and wiggles into the now loose sleeve at her shoulder. There’s a dull buzz as the metal ball snaps into place in the socket via magnets and magic. She rolls her arm a little bit to make sure it fits right then grips her saddle again.

“Well, thanks,” she says simply, not really wanting to entertain the simpleton any further after literally being disarmed by him.

While they traverse the mud off the beaten path, Astrid notices Everett trying to get a read on her, so she gives him a wave by wiggling her fingers at him. She’s not really sure what she expected from Everett, but somehow she imagined someone a little more like Leandros. Maybe more hardened and weathered by adventure. How the heck did he lose his arm? He doesn’t look grisled like someone who lost it in a fight against an avianbear or something. Though, the same could probably be said for her, but at least she’s got scars to show all the rough and tumble things she’s been up to. It’s good to know he has sky magic, though. That’s going to come in handy.

Arcus paws at the ground anxiously with all the movement around him, especially as the raft is uncovered, but Astrid pats his neck and keeps him calm to the best of her ability. Just a little longer, she thinks. How is she going to be a problem for these Mud Worms? Being a general menace? Summoning Big Frizole? Pulling Buttfellow out of her Pet Pocket? There are so many options, and these guys aren’t going to see any of them coming.

Once they finally get across the swamp, Astrid looks up at the ladder that honestly looks like it’ll snap in a heartbeat. “Up the ladder?” she asks with fake distress in her voice. “But that looks so dangerous. Surely, ya ain’t expectin’ little ol’ me ta climb somethin’ so precarious like that? What if I fall? An’ what are ya gonna do with Arcus? He can’t stay down here. Some swamp gator’ll snatch him right up if ya don’t keep a close eye on him!”

“This beast is worth more to us alive than dead,” the green lizardfolk says. “A horse that can fly over the swamp? Heh. You didn’t think we were gonna let you keep it, did you?”

“What? But he’s my horse. Me da gave him ta me!” Astrid protests like the petulant child she’s pretending to be.

“Should’ve thought of that before you surrendered yourself, kid,” the green lizardfolk says with a smirk.

He nudges his arrow at them more until Astrid relents and gets off of Arcus, helping Cypress down onto the unstable raft. She insists that Cypress goes first, trying to hold the ladder steady and giving the other girl a reassuring nod. Only once Cypress is at the top does Astrid start ascending, though she pauses and looks at Everett with a contemplative look. “How are you gonna climb up?”

An hour of slogging through the marsh on the back of Arcus is tedious and full of tension between all parties, but it could be worse: she could be slogging through it on foot, and oh boy, does Cypress feel bad about how Everett has to slog through this marsh on foot. Why do the Mud Worms have a base so far away from their operations, anyways!? Isn’t that inefficient?

Cypress wiggles her ears anxiously, counting the dead, barren, depressing trees jutting out from the mangrove, and naming the particular shade of brown that they look like, to keep herself from getting anymore frazzled on the way. She keeps a firm hold around Astrid’s waist for most of the trip, side-eyeing the Mud Worms, and then quickly looking away when they scowl in her direction. Astrid is doing a (questionably) good job at acting, but Cypress doesn’t need to act anxious to be convincing. She just is.

But, it’s fine! They have a plan! They just need to get through the scary part of the plan, and she has safeguards, and Astrid has fought like, two whole deities! It’s fine! Everything’s so fine right now!

Eventually, they reach the Mud Worm’s hamlet; it’s actually rather cute— a forest canopy in the heart of the Marsh Flats; but it loses its natural charm pretty quickly when the lizard folk starts talking. “… What are you gonna do with him?” She asks hesitantly; Astrid follows suit, and although the lizardfolk assures them that he’s worth more alive than he is dead, she hardly feels comforted by that turn of phrase.

Her ears turn backwards when the lizard folk starts poking at them with one of the arrows from his quiver, and she reluctantly dismounts Arcus. She takes Astrid’s hand when it’s offered, holding onto the other girl to steady herself when the raft baubles with their weight, and glances worriedly at her after seeing the state of the ladder. She takes a reaffirming breath when Astrid nods reassuringly, and glances at Everett with the tiniest attempt at a reassuring smile before she reaches out for the ladder.

She tests its ability to hold her weight before fully committing to it; and scales the ladder with (some) difficulty given her hooves are not the most ideal climbing implements. She scrabbles at the treehouse floor when she reaches the top, pulling herself over, and glancing around with a blink while she dusts the dirt from her skirts; she notices a few dark-clothed individuals loitering, one of whom furrows their brows at her sudden arrival, and she stops moving entirely.

With a roll of their eyes, the individual storms over to the ladder and looks down while Astrid climbs up. Her eyes narrow a little more. “Hey! The hell are you doing bringing kids here? What are we, babysitters?”

The green lizardfolk rolls his eyes, cupping a clawed hand over his maw to call back, “They’re noble kids! Deal with it until we get the ransom money from their parents.”

“A noble’s kids?” Cypress hears the woman curse in a tongue she doesn’t understand, pinching the bridge of her nose before waving a hand dismissively at the group at the bottom. “You better hope to the gods that they’re not government kids. Last thing we need is authorities getting sent out here lookin' for their missing kids!"

"More budget to bargain with, as far as I see it. They're going to have a long way to go to find the base; ain't no one found it thus far."

The hobbled human ties the rope around the pegasus' neck to the trunk of the nearest tree along with a line to keep the raft from floating off as the girls are prodded into climbing the ladder.

Everett looks at Astrid, then at the Mud Worms, then at the ladder, then back to Astrid. He frowns a bit. "I can climb."

Gods, what are they even doing? 

He waits for Astrid to climb to the top before he attempts to scale the ladder himself. He has been without his arm for...who knows how long, but his body is more than well-adjusted to accommodate for the lack of the limb. Still, compared to the rope ladders on a ship, the vine ladder is a lot more precarious and ill-secured so he does have a bit of trouble.

What he would normally do is cast a spell to help him get up faster, but he gets the feeling that the Mud Worms would take any opportunity to use any spells cast as an excuse to skewer him despite the promise made to the girls. So instead he just awkwardly pulls himself up the ladder. The heavier-set lizardfolk gets fed up with waiting at one point and climbs up behind him, grabbing onto the back of his jacket and hauling him up onto the platform unceremoniously. 

The woman glowers down at him and the girls, unimpressed with his group of misfits the others brought to their base of operations. She's relatively human in appearance, though her skin has an olive-green tinge to it and her nose is unusually short. Her eyes are more reptilian with slit pupils and no visible whites, and a forked tongue slips between her lips. 

"You idiots are lucky Jagger isn't around. If he found you messing around with hostages, he'd use you as Bogaboo bait." She turns away from the group. "Tie them up and keep them quiet. I don't have time for this nonsense." 

If given the opportunity, the rest of the Mud Worms lead the girls and Everett to one of the huts which is more of a storage area than a place to sleep. There's not a lot of supplies in there, surprisingly. In fact, it looks like it was more recently cleared out. If they had to guess, this base was just a midpoint between the road and wherever the rest of the Mud Worms, including their leader Jagger, were holed up.

The three are shoved into the hut, weapons confiscated, and hands and feet bound and made to sit quietly in the space while two of the lizardfolk stand guard over them. The others of the group disperse, but by the sounds of the creaking of wood planks, they haven't gone far.

Everett glances between the girls and the guards, anxious to speak, but not wanting to give the bandits any reason to get violent. 

Astrid does her best to look like a helpless, scared child, but the truth is, she’s struggling to put on that persona. Heck, even being in the streets on her own, she didn’t exactly present herself as helpless, going so far as to argue with people from time to time when she was feeling particularly bold. Should she be worried in this instance? Maybe a little bit. They are outnumbered, but Astrid is far from helpless. She has a plan. Sort of.

Tied up and sitting nice and tidy beside the other two captives, Astrid looks at Cypress and Everett as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. This is all perfectly fine. The only things they really took from her was her horse, her satchel, and her hammer. None of that is a particular problem for her. Granted, Astrid needs her war hammer for most of her spellcasting, but acquiring that is also not a problem at all considering her magical bond with the weapon. Still, the guards watching them is probably the second biggest problem after the fact that her hands and legs are bound, so Astrid simply sits there and waits.

And waits.

And waits…

Until finally, the guards stop watching them nearly as intently and begin complaining about being hungry and wondering what’s for dinner. Now is the time for action. Astrid closes her eyes and focuses on her connection to Cantio through their earrings and pulls on his knowledge of how to escape. With a deftness not befitting the clunky child, her hands work quickly until they are freed from the ropes.^[1] While the guards aren’t watching, she unties her feet then pulls her glove off just enough to shake it out. A single gold coin embossed with the icon of the Golden Consortium falls into her metal hand, clinking slightly when it makes contact. Astrid looks over at Everett and Cypress and winks.

Then Astrid flicks the coin across the room. When it hits the wall, the coin explodes into hundreds of similar gold coins.^[2] Startled by the sudden appearance of more gold than either of them have ever seen, both of the guards jump to their feet. While they should be suspicious of this, the magic of the coins is irresistible, and they can’t peel their eyes away.

“Hell yeah! Look at this!!” one of them shouts, diving to the floor and scraping as many coins as possible while the final rain of coins clatters to the floor.

With those two idiots distracted for at least a little bit, Astrid leaps to her feet and touches the pendant around her neck. A mismatched suit of armor manifests around her person in the blink of an eye,^[3] and she rushes to free Cypress and Everett from their bindings before the two guards have enough wherewithal to do something about their freed captives. Once they're freed, she stands upright with a smug look on her face that still does not communicate a specific plan. 

The plan should be obvious: beat up the bad guys and get the heck out of there! Right?

---

1. Cantio’s Eternity Ring - Escaping Technique
2. Transmuter - Greed
3. Armor Locket

The satyr awkwardly wrings her hands while the reptillian woman scolds the group down below; she tries not to think too hard about any of this. Quietly repeating mantras of Everything’s okay, and We have a plan, she anxiously scuttles to the edge of the ladder once the woman finally turns away from them. She reaches out to Astrid to help her over the edge and then returns to help Everett - only to find him being elf-handled by one of the Lizardfolk.

It’s enough for her to start scolding the Lizardfolk despite their entire situation; the Lizardfolk simply rolling his eyes at her like a barking dog and helps to usher the group of misfits to where they spend the next few hours tied up, waiting for something.

Now and then, Cypress glances towards Everett - she has a lot to say, and she wants to explain this plan to him - but also, she doesn’t entirely know where to go from here; now and then, her sheepish glance also turns towards Astrid - again, wanting to ask questions or say anything at all… but the guards’ glares are intimidating and Cypress doesn’t want to risk making them upset, so she remains quiet.

It’s agonizing. Agonizingly boring.

While she’s spacing out, hoping that Skelly is snoozing in the bag they confiscated from her, she hears shuffling. Her long ears twitch, turning towards Astrid before she fully turns her head to look at the girl with wide eyes. She watches quietly (and nervously) while Astrid begins to untie her ropes with a surprising amount of deftness - and then waits for the guards to look away before untying her feet. Cypress’ eyes twinkle with a hopeful pride when Astrid gets both sets of ropes untied, and she grins when she spots the glimmer and hears the clink of the golden coin.

The chaos of a bunch of gold coins exploding from the wall is not nearly as much as it would be in, say, a city - but it’s just enough between the two guards to give Astrid time to untie her. She shakes her hands free once the binds fall, and works to untie her hooves. “Sorry mister Everett,” she whispers as she pulls one of her hooves from the ropes and ignores the tingle in her legs from having been in one position for far too long. She rushes around to help Astrid with Everett’s binds. “We wanted them to bring us here so we can get to the heart of the problem. Are you okay?”

Unbeknownst to all parties, one certain boy has escaped Cypress’ bag and has found his new treasury in a massive pile of magical coins nearby. Skelly sits buried up to his eyes in the pile of coins, gooping up the magically-imbued currency without a single thought. He is very content, as these sparkling gold coins will be of great tribute to his kingdom of the jar and also the box where his warm orb stands tall over his personal pond just for him.

Once everyone is free, Cypress skirts over to Astrid with wide-eyes, “What-“ she starts quietly, then winces when one of the bandits makes a startled shrieking sound. “AH, gods! WHAT IS THAT!?” They wave their hands about, which are covered in a thick and slippery transparent black goop, while Skelly blinks his eyes out-of-sync with one another. His head sits just above the pile of coins.

Cypress bristles. “Skelly!”

This whole situation is just a mess and baffling. How could he let it get to this point? What was he doing? He's the adult in this situation! What are Cypress' guardians going to think when she tells them he let her get captured by dangerous criminals?

No, wait.

How could they let her and her friend travel by themselves through the Marsh Flats? Do they even know the girls are out here?

His thoughts are interrupted by the sudden appearance of a pile of gold. He's perplexed until he spots that Astrid has freed herself and is now freeing Cypress. 

"Wha-"

He stops himself from speaking in case the guards take notice. But just how did she manage that? As much as he wants to ask all the questions, this wasn't really the time. 

"I'm fine, but you two really shouldn't have gotten involved," he whispers. "These people are dangerous." 

He's not one to scold them given how they found him, but dammit they're still children!

Everett gets to his feet quickly once Cypress and Astrid have untied him. He steps up behind the shrieking guard and wraps his arm around their neck before throwing his body weight against them. They're thrown off balance and the half-elf presses his forearm hard against their throat to choke them out. Their shouting had already ruined any chance of keeping things quiet. They had to act quickly to escape with their lives. 

Glancing over at the pile of gold with on slimy little lizard perched upon it like a dragon with its hoard, he tilts his head in confusion before releasing the limp body of the Mud Worm. 

"Hey!" Shouts the other guard, having realized what is going on as their companion is dropped to the floor.

They reach for their weapon but Everett is quick to slam his shoulder into their gut and pin them against the wall.^[1] The two struggle, the bandit for their weapon and Everett to just keep them pinned and away from the girls. 

"Whatever plan you have, now is the time to do it!" The half-elf glances at Astrid, really hoping that she isn't just all talk. 

---

[1] Bullet Dash

Skelly’s appearance in the pile of coins, now awash with goop from the content overlord, really makes Astrid struggle not to laugh. That stinkin’ skewt, always mucking things up in some way. This time it’s helpful at least. Astrid is honestly impressed that Everett has decided that wrestling and choking the guys out is the best play, even more so when one of the guards goes limp and the other cries for help. Well, that won’t do.

With the flick of her wrist, Astrid’s war hammer manifests in her hand.^[1] She then hurries over to the guy shouting and gives him a well-placed bonk on the head to knock him out so he stops that inconvenient shouting.^[2] With that handled, Astrid steps back, carefully avoiding the fake gold coins and the goop coagulating with them and gives her war hammer a little flourish. Magic sparks, and this summons her satchel from wherever the Mud Worms stowed it.^[3]

Digging inside, she pulls out a tiny, gelatinous treat which she offers to Cypress.^[4] “If yer in a situation where ya might get smacked, eat this. It’ll only last a few seconds, but it’ll keep ya safe.” Then Astrid pulls a tough ration bar out of her bag and takes a munch on it, looking at Everett as if everything is going completely according to plan.^[5] She doesn’t seem worried in the least, which may or may not be concerning.

“What’d be funnier? A giant golem or a giant drake causin’ havoc outside?” A spell stands at the ready for casting.

---

1. Spellblade - Always There
2. Momentous cleave
3. Summon Possession
4. Dewdrop Jelly Roll
5. Ranger Rations - Restore Momentous Cleave use

“Well, yeah - the locals told us that the Mud Worms have been menaces with all the looting and being jerks and stuff.” Cypress agrees while she fumbles with Everett’s ties; she sounds somewhat baffled by Everett’s warning, as if this is very clearly common knowledge. “That’s why we got involved, so they don’t have to worry anymore about them... That’s why you got involved too, right, mister Everett?”

When the ties fall, Cypress steps back to give Everett his space; but while she scans the building they’ve been kept in, she ends up double-taking at the pile of gold when she spots her skewt standing with his head held high on top of the pile. While Everett proceeds to choke out one of the guards, and the other starts yelping for help after- oh, Astrid just knocked him out cold, nevermind- she scurries over to the pile of gold and plucks the goopy boy off his new throne of wealth.

Skelly’s little legs wiggle as if swimming in air while she lifts him up. He does not wish to be removed from his throne; what about his treasury!? Such hard work to accumulate such wealth, such effort to -

“Eww, Skelly.” the food giver grumbles, giving him a little shake to knock some of the goop off him. Skelly’s thoughts rattle around in his empty head until they delete themselves. He licks his eyeball and stares at her. Is it time to eat? “How did you get in my bag in the first place!?”

Cypress sighs, exasperated, and pushes Skelly up onto her shoulder before wiping her hands on her skirts; she perks up when she hears Astrid’s voice. She smiles gratefully and nods, taking the jiggly treat, and moving it away from Skelly when he steps forwards with slow, predatory intent. “Thank you,” she agrees, stowing the wrapped treat in her skirts. She joins Astrid, trying to focus on everything going on- what does she do? She doesn't reeeeally have any way to get her bag back, and she doesn't know if she can reliably trigger any spells... but there’s a good chance someone heard those cries for help, right? She hears someone calling out from afar to answer the earlier calls, but they’ll be sure to investigate when no answer returns.

“Buttfellow will fall right through the platforms and take us with him, won't he? Big Frijole could probably move around easier outside.” She does not consider that either of these names might be massively silly in comparison to what they really are, especially since mister Everett has probably not met either of them.

"Well, yes, but that doesn't mean you two should be here," he argues before leaving Cypress to recover her goopy pet from its golden throne.

With one down and the other pinned to the wall, the number of threats inside the hut was quickly dwindling. But that was just a temporary solution. How the hells would he get the two girls out of here without opposition?

A flash of magic in his periphery catches his attention. He ducks out of the way of Astrid's hammer as it comes in for a solid bonk into the bandit's cranium. He's stunned for a moment as he watches the thud slide down the wall and onto the floor, knocked out cold. There are no words, he's speechless. Just what is going on with Cypress's friend?

By the time he gets his wits back, the two girls are conversing about what to do next. All he can do is gawk a bit and what they're saying. 

Buttfellow?

Big Frijole??

Is... is this some secret code language or is he just that out of touch with the youth these days?

It's all too much for him to understand under the current circumstances. At this point, he's just better off giving up on trying to rationalize anything happening right now. So he does. He gives up and accepts that the girls are here and they are not going to just run away when he tells them to.

He wails internally. 

One crisis at a time.

Moving over to the door, he listens for any other bandits headed their way. Taking out the two silently didn't go exactly the way he'd hoped and that's evident enough by the sound of creaking wood growing closer to the door. Then it stops. Listening most likely, tentative to approach the building they know a caster is in. Perhaps they can sneak around the back and get the jump on the bandits. Or at least the girls could if he draws their attention to the front. 

Everett glances over at the two girls and tries to gesture for them to keep their voices down and move away from the door. Whether or not they do as he'd like is far beyond his control, and he knows it. 

“We can be wherever we want,” Astrid argues with a defiant air of authority. What’s Everett gonna do? Ground them? HAH! She’s already been grounded!

She breaks down into a giggle fit while Cypress peels the goopy skewt from his throne of gold. “Bet ya left the cover off the glass, so he vooped right out an’ inta yer bag." She offers the skewt an affectionate one-finger scritch on the head. “Guess he wants ta be an adventurer too. Anyway.”

Astrid turns and effortlessly swings her big ass hammer to rest on her shoulder while she and Cypress ponder which of her chaotic giant pets to bring along. “Big Frizole could probably cause some havoc just flyin’ around, but Buttfellow’s got a lot a’ helpful spells, even if he just falls through the platform ‘cause he’s heavy. Hmmm… UGH! They’re both so good!”

That’s when she notices Everett by the door listening out. Stepping over to the open-air window, Astrid peeks out and sees a bunch of bandits rushing toward them. Oh, to the hells with it. Dropping a giant golem on these guys will be funny. With a devious grin, Astrid reaches into a pocket dimension^[1] and pulls out a hulking, eight-foot-tall golem made of scrap metal with big fists to match, dropping him right at the end of the bridge connecting the platform of their building to the other one. The wood creaks, and the goons shout in surprise.

“Wakey, wakey! Time ta kick some butt!!” Astrid shouts, sending a pulse of magic toward Buttfellow that strikes his metal surface and travels across it. Runes across his surface light up, and the golem’s stance becomes more upright and aggressive as it enters a combattant state.^[2] And then, because Buttfellow is not smart, red runes alight on his surface, gathering with intensity at his face, and suddenly a gout of flames sprays out in front of him^[3] – directly at the approaching (and now panicking) bandits.

“Ay, ya dummy!” she shouts. “That were the bridge!” With a huff, Astrid heads to the back of the hut and promptly smashes a hole in the wall^[4] to give them another out. With a very sarcastic flourish, she motions for them to make their exit. Unless they want to go out the front door, of course.

---

1. Pet Pocket
2. Arcane Activation [post 1/4]
3. Mana Bulwark [spell 1/3] - Flame Breath
4. Baloth Muscles

Skelly’s head tilts down with the affectionate scratch between his eyes from Astrid; and once she’s pulled her hand away, he blinks his eyes out of sync with one another. “Do you think?” Cypress frets in a whisper, “I guess I did feed him this morning before you came over, but…”

Although the idea of Skelly as an adventurer is really cute she, unfortunately, doesn’t have time to imagine the skewt in a little cape with a little hat and a little sword. She will later record a little doodle in her journal with a recount of today’s adventure, though. For now, she ponders which of Astrid’s massive pets would be most ideal- and while Cypress thinks Big Frizole would be the best idea - Astrid also raises some good points about Buttfellow’s spells.

“That’s true… I like Buttfellow, he’s nice.” Now is not the best time to chat about how nice the giant golem is; she’s also not looking at Everett to see his expression of confusion while the children chat about some incredibly eccentric names without context. “He’s got a lot up his- hee, metaphorical- sleeves.” She chuckles to herself, ears perking and twitching towards Everett when she picks up the movement. She quiets down, about to ask Everett what he hears outside- “Mister Ev-” But then she hears a whole lot of Astrid’s battle cry in her ears, followed up by one very large golem manifesting outside.

Cypress stumbles when the wood groans and shudders with the full weight of Buttfellow manifesting on the platform bridge between the unsteady treehouses, “You went with Buttfellow!?” she chirrups, eyes widening as the runes begin to light up across him, “Wait, what does red-”

As it turns out, red means fire.

Cypress stares after the panicking bandits while they try to reorganize themselves; one pulls out a crossbow, knocking the arrow, and quickly attempting to shoot Buttfellow; one retreats, presumably to gather backup; and another begins summoning a spell in a rushed frenzy.

YEP, EVERYTHING IS. FINE.

This whole place is flammable! Uh oh!

But she trusts Astrid, surely this is according to -

Oh, no, even Astrid is scolding Buttfellow.

“Oh, gods- okay! We should go find our stuff, right? Before it gets burned to a crisp?” She scuffles over to grab Mister Everett by the sleeve, worriedly gesturing to the new back door of the building Astrid has just created, before she releases him and bounds over to join Astrid, herself.

It’s around that time, however, that one of the whomevers Everett must have been hearing go quiet outside rounds the corner at the same time Cypress makes it to Astrid. Both satyr and lizardfolk are surprised when they meet in the middle- and Cypress hardly has the time to determine if this bandit is trying to investigate a separate way in, or fleeing from Buttfellow, because she is very promptly knocked onto her rump after a collision with the much taller individual.

Astrid's defiant argument just makes Everett stare at her like WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Her attitude is just...if they survive this he is going to have a serious conversation with the girl's guardian later. 

As Astrid leans out the window, he's of half a mind to pull her back into the room. But before he can step away from the door, she pulls a GOLEM out of NOWHERE and plops it down outside near the bridge. 

"Uh-" 

And then it spews out fire. 

Great. 

"I don't think fire is the best thing right now!"

A hells, why does he bother?

He looks down at Cypress as she tugs at his sleeve. The look of worry on her face makes him wince internally, but he nods in response to her gestures. As much as he wants to keep himself between the girls and the bandits, the appearance of the flame-spewing golem is definitely drawing all the attention from the Mud Worms right now. He runs after Cypress to the new exit from the tree-top hut. 

Seeing Cypress fall back on her tail, Everett steps up behind her and throws his hand forward. An air current builds around his arm before bursting forward and blowing the Mud Worm right off the platform.^[1] They scream as they fall to the swamp down below and hit the surface of the murky water with a loud splash. 

Everett reaches down and helps Cypress back up onto her hooves. Glancing down past the platform, he can spot the flying mount still stuck on the raft. The poor thing probably isn't going to like being kept tethered to a tree underneath burning buildings. 

"I can get you to the flying horse," he says to Cypress before stepping off the platform. Wind catches underneath his feet, the density of air building up enough to make it possible for him to walk air itself.^[2] He offers his hand to Cypress. "We'll take care of the bandits and find your things. I'll watch your friend's back. I promise." 

If Cypress takes his hand, he'll carry her down to the pegasus and untie it so she can get it up into the air. 

---

[1] Gust Thrust
[2] Step of the Wind

Astrid looks just as distressed by Buttfellow’s decision to suddenly erupt the whole treetop with fire as anyone else. Well, maybe she looks more annoyed than she does distressed. This just means they need to go a different way. “He coulda used, I dunno, Frost Web or somethin’, but nooo, let’s just start with flames blazin’!” she grumbles as she punches a back door in the hut.

In her annoyance and blasé attitude about the situation, Astrid doesn’t notice the literal lizardfolk right outside before Cypress runs into him. Her eyes go wide, about to jump to action when Everett steps up and just blasts the guy right off the platform and into the muck below. The tension leaves Astrid’s shoulders immediately, and she gives Everett an approving, appraising nod.

“Wait, Cypress, ya don’t have ta just go get on Arcus an’ go,” Astrid says. Though at least recovering the pegasus and getting into the air is probably the best idea. If there’s one thing Astrid has learned about adventuring with non-adventurers, it’s that you don’t let them go off on their own. “We need ta stick together. Thin’s will be fine. I wouldn’t a’ brought Cypress if I didn’t think I could keep her safe.” (The collision with the lizardfolk notwithstanding.)

A Wilhelm scream echoes from the front of the hut as one of the bandits is punted through the air by Buttfellow’s mighty fist.

---

Arcane Activation [post 2/4]

The satyr’s first instinct is to cover her face and make herself as small as possible in the face of something that she simply didn’t have time to see. She feels a rush of wind above her head, whipping her curly hair over her shoulders, followed by a shriek as whoever was outside goes flying into the swamp.

She peeks between her fingers at the hole in the wall, then lowers her hands with an exasperated, but relieved expression. “I’m fine!” she chirps, glancing sidelong at Everett’s hand when it’s offered; she takes it, pulling herself up to her hooves. She makes sure Skelly is okay- which, he seems fine- before offering Astrid an apologetic smile. “He just gave me a spook is all. Thank you, mister Everett!”

She hops out of the hole in the wall after Everett, glancing both ways this time for any sneaky Lizardfolk around the corner; but when Everett offers to get them to Arcus- who she can see just past the platform- she reaches out without thinking to take his hand.

She trusts Everett, after all- but she trusts Astrid just as much.

One of the satyr’s long ears tilts back in Astrid’s direction when she objects; and she freezes for a moment, lips pursed in uncertainty while she processes what’s actually going on. She flicks her ears, blinking up at Everett before taking his hand- not to be carried away, but to gently tug on Everett as if to bring him back to the platform. “I promised Astrid I’d never leave her,” she objects sincerely, “I’ll be fine! I know magic now, too.” she adds; and she’s not lying per say, however…

She hasn’t felt her magic getting out of control the way it did in the prison heist; in fact, she doesn’t feel that uncomfortable buzz in her head and heart the way she feels it when the magic starts to kick up. She didn’t feel it when she ran into that Lizardfolk, despite her nerves being on end in all kinds of ways…

Even the flowers that generally spring up beneath her hooves are absent today.

That’s weird, right?

“We can all watch each other’s backs if we make sure we stick together.” she chirrups, “But… Arcus does need to be untied. We can go together and get him, right? Astrid can fly, too.” She glances back at Astrid, hoping to come to some kind of compromise while another wilhelm scream echoes through the air, followed by a splash.

Everett frowns a bit. He almost pulls his hand back as Cypress freezes and Astrid shoots down his attempt to get her out of harm’s way. Why is this happening? Is he in the wrong? He doesn’t understand why Astrid is so set on refuting him time and time again. Is she just showing off for Cypress? She just keeps insisting she can keep Cypress safe. He’s just trying to do the same, but for both of them…

Cypress tugs on his hand gently and his gaze returns to her. He opens his mouth as if to say something, but then closes it again. Now’s not the time to argue with the young satyr about how knowing magic and knowing how to use it in a fight are two different things.

As frustrating as it is to let Astrid undermine him at every turn - especially when the situation is as dangerous as it is - Cypress clearly trusts her more so if he wants to keep them both even remotely safe, he’ll have to avoid causing them to just run off by themselves.

Thank the gods the aspiring alchemist actually suggests a compromise to their friend that Everett can get behind. Getting both girls back to the horse and out of harm’s way is absolutely fine by him.

“I’m fine with going together. It’s not safe to leave your pet tied up down there where they could get hit by something.” He then locks eyes with Astrid. “You sure you can fly down yourself?”

Of course, he knows she likely can - Cypress is not the type to lie about something like that - but putting it out there that he’s uncertain or has doubts might help make the rebellious little hellion more likely to go along with the plan just to prove him a fool for questioning her abilities.

He'd wait to see if Astrid fell for his little ploy, and if she did, he'd help Cypress get down to Arcus and untie the creature so they could get it out from underneath the chaos above. 

The sound of crackling wood increases as the fire starts to spread throughout the little arboreal hideout. The raiders have little choice but to do whatever they can to prioritize putting out the flames before they lose everything, or worse, the smoke attracts more unwanted attention.

Of course, dealing with the rampaging golem is also a pretty high priority, though there isn't much they can do against the construct. Gravity, on the other hand, does not give a shit about what something is, only how much it weighs. The wooden boards under Buttfellow's feet start to splinter and crack, threatening to send it tumbling to the swamp below.